June 13, 2012

Man, last night was killer. Good thing you don’t have to return those clothes, right? Read about how buying your tux might be the better move.

Once upon a time in the world of men’s formal fashion, smart guys forwent buying their own tuxedos in favor of picking up a rental. By the light of the almighty dollar, this trend made perfect sense. After all, rentals were widely considered to be the thrifty alternative to the $400+ fully owned tuxedo, which is why the gentlemen who chose that route were considered wise in their spending.

Fast forward a decade or so and the way we buy our formalwear has evolved to a point where the smart guys are the ones know how to spend less and come home with a tuxedo to stash away in their closets for years to come. We know we’ve been saying this for a while, but this time we have a fact-rich article on the state of the tuxedo rental industry that proves that an increasing number of men are discovering the financial benefits of purchasing a tuxedo.

With all this talk of savings and the economy though, we feel like the fashion world is neglecting one of the more unique consequences of tuxedo rental: the inevitable question of where it had been the last few times it was worn.

Some of you can go even further into the vault of memory to recall things like the moment of relief you felt when you discovered that the dry cleaner could, in fact, remove that chocolate stain from your lapel and that the residual odor of sweat and/or booze was no big deal.

And those are only the things that exist within our realm of imagination. You can do worse. People have done worse. To find out what “worse” is, view a tuxedo shop owner’s rant on what he deals with on a regular basis.

So even if you can still save a few bucks on a rental garment that has been worn countless times, those savings won’t keep you warm at night as you sit there wondering about the storied history of the tuxedo you’re going to don the next day.

Now who’s with us in being the smart, well-dressed man in the rental rough?